Looking to start your data analytics journey?
You can start with Tableau
In this article I will suggest the steps to follow to help you get started or better in your data journey. It is okay if you have never heard of Tableau before now or if you have and not done much with it. The aim of this article it to shed more light on this topic
Below are some steps you can follow to get started:
- The first thing I will suggest is to pause for a moment and take a look at the links below as it explains what tableau is:
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YfE9jBq002s by Tableau Software.
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Jl-RwkzqQ4 by Tableau Tim.
I believe you now understand what Tableau is and what it is used for now. Next step is to create an account on tableauPublic.
2. To create a Tableau Public profile, you need to download the software and then sign up using your email address. Go to this link (https://public.tableau.com/en-us/s/) to download.
You can either create your visualizations directly online or use the free tableau public app version to create your visualizations.
Congratulation! You now have a platform to store your work, practice and learn. This can now serve as a portfolio or a platform to track your progression.
3. To get started you can create your first visualization by following either of the tutorials in the links below:
- https://public.tableau.com/en-us/s/resources by Tableau Software.
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o48fYA_3x54 by Nestor Adrianzen.
Now that you know the few steps to help you get started, there are some information that I believe will help enhance your data analytical skill and they have been summarized below:
a. Follow people in the data community:
- On Tableau Public( https://www.tableau.com/community/public and https://public.tableau.com/en-us/gallery/?tab=viz-of-the-day&type=viz-of-the-day)
- On youtube(Andy Kriebel, Tableau Tim and many others)
- Join a Tableau User Group in your country/region(https://usergroups.tableau.com/)
- On twitter (Kevin Flerlage and other people from community)
b. Learn by practicing, create a lot of visualizations and don’t worry about the data, you can get them here -https://www.tableau.com/community/community-projects. You can build projects with these diverse datasets which will not only help you maintain a strong portfolio but also help you get better.
c. Share your visualization with the community and ask for feedbacks, this will help you learn. Most importantly, take action based on those feedbacks.
In conclusion, it is important to note that if you really want to be good at this, you have to concentrate on following; good practices, get inspiration from the gallery and continuously research on how to tell good stories with data, focusing on function first and then form. Basically, consider your design, story and insight.
Finally, be consistent and gritty.
